Tag Archives: gyms east san jose

Awesome job to all the competitors that competed in the 2014 US OPEN! Thanks to all the Smash Gyms Coaches and training partners that got them ready. What an amazing team we have! Another dominating performance!

Smash Gyms is very proud to announce another awesome addition to our staff. Imanuel “Manny” Rocha is martial artist, athlete and personal trainer. Manny’s passion for fitness and martial arts make him a fun and popular personal trainer and coach. His willingness to help people of all fitness and experience levels have helped him grow a loyal following of students and training partners.

Manny Rocha Won his Boxing debut by KO!

Manny once weighed 289lbs and through martial arts and fitness has discovered a path to reaching his potential. After losing 90lbs he is excited to give back what he has learned along his journey to the members at Smash Gyms.

As a personal trainer Manny's work ethic is contagious!

In his goal to become a well-rounded martial artist Manny has trained and competed in boxing, jiu-jitsu, tae kwon do, kickboxing and kenpo karate. He has trained with World Champion Kickboxer and coach Mike Winkeljohn, trained with world champion boxer Danny Romero, with MMA champions Nick & Nate Diaz, and BJJ Blackbelt Phil Torres. He has sought out the best coaching possible and looks forward to passing on his skills and knowledge to his students.

Manny Rocha with his striking coach Mike Winkeljohn

Manny is teaching beginner friendly classes at Smash San Jose 5 days a week! Boxing at 7:30pm on Monday & Wednesday and 6:30pm on Fridays and Kickboxing on Tuesday & Thursday at 6:30pm. Kids Kickboxing and boxing coming soon. All the classes at Smash focus on providing you with a great workout, learning something and most importantly having FUN!

Manny is now just as sought after for his personal training services at Smash as his striking skills. Manny specializes in helping women and men reach their fitness goals through motivating and affordable personal training sessions. His experience as a Personal Trainer with Golds Gym coupled with his versatile martial arts background makes for unique and fun fitness training sessions. He is a very popular trainer so call soon while he still has openings!

Beginning Monday February 10th 2014 Sam “The Ram” Spengler will begin teaching beginner friendly MMA Fitness & Self-Defense Classes at the new San Jose Smash Gyms. Smash Gym San Jose is located in Evergreen right down the street from Quimby Oak Middle School where Sam has taught for over 12 years.

Sam Spengler - Teacher, Coach, Martial Artist, & MMA Fighter

As a veteran PE teacher, wrestling coach, athlete, and role model Sam Spengler has contributed to the East San Jose and Evergreen community in many ways. As a teacher Sam’s positive attitude is contagious and he is extremely popular with his students and fellow staff. Sam has had huge success as the Quimby Oak Head Wrestling Coach. He has led the Quimby Oak Lobo’s wrestling team to win their league for 12 years in a row. As a coach Sam has helped students fulfill their potential by guiding them in their athletic careers. He has created countless champions. Many of Sam’s students have gone on to receive scholarships, become coaches themselves, and be contributing members of the community.

2013 BJJ US Purple Belt Open Champion Sam Spengler

Sam has been wrestling since he was 5 years old. As a senior in high school he earned a bronze medal in the Montana State Wrestling Championships and also received a scholarship to play college football where he earned a degree in Education. A seasoned martial arts veteran, Sam has been competing in kickboxing and MMA since 2003. He began training kickboxing over 10 years ago at West Valley Community College with Brian Kuhn. Shortly after Brian introduced Sam to Cung Le’s Martial Arts in San Jose where Sam began training MMA. Sam continued his MMA training with Cung Le and supplemented his training by learning BJJ at Smash Gyms. Sam has trained with many world-class competitors and instructors over the last 10 years.

Sam has competed in hundreds of wrestling matches, 22 kickboxing matches, dozens of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu tournaments and 9 MMA fights. Sam is also the head of his Physical Education Department in San Jose. This competitive experience in kickboxing, wrestling, brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts coupled with his teaching background lends him the unique ability to transfer his knowledge to eager students in a structured and systematic way. Sam’s organized and fun classes will help students of all skill and fitness levels learn technique and improve their fitness level due to a format and curriculum designed to create an optimal learning environment. Sam is happy and excited to pass on his experience and unique skill set to the Evergreen and East San Jose community at Smash Gyms.

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. Tony Robbins

If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on. Sheryl Sandberg

Get out of your comfort zone! Safe & Fun!

I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough. Marissa Mayer

If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big. Donald Trump

Pearls don’t lie on the seashore. If you want one, you must dive for it. Chinese proverb

Patrick Kong in another dominating performance!

You can’t outwit fate by standing on the sidelines placing little sidebets about the outcome of life. Either you wade in and risk everything you have to play the game or you don’t play at all. And if you don’t play you can’t win. Judith McNaught

If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough. Mario Andretti

Bootcamp, Circuit Training, Personal Training!

Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it. Oprah Winfrey

Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing. Denis Waitley

Smash Gyms' 3-time US Open Champ Brian Kuhn

Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.Jimmy Carter

The universe has no restrictions. You place restrictions on the universe with your expectations. Deepak Chopra

Anyone Can Learn Kickboxing! Beginner Friendly!

Do one thing every day that scares you.Eleanor Roosevelt

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. Bill Cosby

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Steve Jobs

Smash helps Wrestlers Succesfully Transition to BJJ

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary. Jim Rohn

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. Aristotle

You get what you settle for. Thelma and Louise

Kids Judo!

If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs. Dhirubhai Ambani

I refuse to accept other people’s ideas of happiness for me. As if there’s a ‘one size fits all’ standard for happiness. Kanye West

The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself. Mark Caine

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.Steve Jobs

Leap and the net will appear. Zen Saying

I don’t think you’re human if you don’t get nervous. Sidney Crosby

Beginner Friendly

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. John A. Shedd

Think big and don’t listen to people who tell you it can’t be done. Life’s too short to think small.Tim Ferriss

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. Michael Jordan

When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.Ellen DeGeneres

Ujam, Yoga, and other Fitness Classes

If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business because we’d be too cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down. Annie Dillard

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. Lao Tzu

Right Across the Street From Eastridge Mall!

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. T. S. Eliot

Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson

It is never too late to be what you might have been. George Eliot

Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk – and to act.Andre Malraux

Every man dies, but not every man really lives.Braveheart

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default. J.K. Rowling

Fun for all age groups and fitness levels!

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. Chinese Proverb

Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try. Jack Canfield

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover. Mark Twain

Martial Arts and Fitness

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. George Addair

Screw it, Let’s do it! Richard Branson

You can’t have everything you want, but you can have the things that really matter to you.Marissa Mayer

A few weeks ago I decided to take the CrossFit Trainer Course to become a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer. I want to thank my Strength & Conditioning coaches James Cebedo and Cainan Munsell for the inspiration! They have helped me reach a fitness level that I never thought possible. Without them I would not know my full physical capabilities & potential and I have grown to love physical fitness.

The course spanned over 2 full days with lectures, breakout sessions, and a WOD (work out of the day) on both days. The class was full of mostly very fit aspiring trainers ready to take their knowledge and fitness to a new level. I have never seen so much muscle in one place! I was pleasantly surprised of the equal ratio of women and men. Because of the awesome training at Smash I was in the top 20% of the women in completing the prescribed timed WODs despite only training for one year. Many of the women could not complete the workout with the prescribed weight requirements.

I am proud to say I have passed the exam and can now consider myself a Crossfit Level 1 Trainer! Below is my fitness story!

Growing up my diet was horrible. As an adult I ballooned up to 140lbs because I never worked out. When I met my husband I had lost 10 pounds mostly through starving myself and diet pills.

I was Heavy Before Smash!

When I began working out I just would walk straight to the elliptical machine. Like most women I didn’t want to lift weights because I didn’t understand the benefits and thought I would look bulky. I didn’t want muscle because I didn’t know what I know now. I have come a LONG way.

All I knew of exercise was getting in 20 mins of light cardio, whether it was jogging or using an elliptical machine. I never saw any results but that was because it was boring so I was never consistent.

When my husband and I started dating I started to workout with him. He encouraged me to start lifting weights and told me that it would actually help me lose fat! He designed an exercise regiment which consisted of weight lifting and cardio. My weightlifting (Globogym style) consisted of legs one day, tricep, chest, & shoulders the next, and back & bicep the following day. I started to see results but I didn’t have systems, knowledge or the support to measure progress and reach my potential.

Then came Smash Gyms and my life changed! After two long years of the same boring workouts I found an exercise regiment that was fun and making huge strides in my physical fitness. The variety of classes at Smash pushed me to a new level of fitness. I was incorporating group classes such as Kickboxing, Kettlebells, and Bootcamp into my workouts. I was taking 3 classes a day because it was FUN! I learned so much in every class and didn’t want to stop progressing.

Then I finally tried the Jiu-Jitsu classes. By that time we had a lot of women in the program at Smash so it was a comfortable safe path for me to see what is all about. It took me a few classes but I eventually fell in love with Jiu-Jitsu. Once you get passed the first few classes Jiu-jitsu becomes addictive! This new found addiction motivated me to get in the best shape possible! Getting tapped will motivate you!

Jiu-Jitsu Competition

Soon after I started taking women’s Jiu-jitsu, Smash added Strength & Conditioning classes to the schedule. The class was taught by fitness veterans & personal trainers James Cebedo and Cainan Munsell. They showed me what real strength training was. It meant taking the plunge and adding heavy weights to a barbell. I soon found that I could lift and squat heavy weights. I was amazed at my new abilities! I soon realized that it wasn’t me. It was my new coaches! With high level coaching everyone is capable of taking their fitness to this level! The coaches also tracked results for everyone taking the Strength & Conditioning classes. This showed that everyone is capable of getting physically stronger and making progress on sprints, WODs, jumps, etc. We could see our progress every week!

Clean & Jerk!

Not only was I able to see and track progress on my lifts and conditioning but best of all I could see the results in my jiu-jitsu training. I found that much of my success in Jiu-jitsu was due to the physical and mental strength that our Strength & Conditioning class gives me. With the combination of our amazing coaches for BJJ and S&C at Smash I was so confident that I decided to enter The Bay Area Jiu-Jitsu Championships and ended up taking home a silver medal. The days I don’t feel like lifting the barbell I remind myself that I want to win my next BJJ tournament and I know that supplementing with strength & conditioning classes will be that extra step towards the gold.

Aside from sports performance our Strength & Conditioning classes have given me much more confidence. I am much happier with the way I look and feel. I was always very self conscious and have battled with low self-esteem. Through martial arts and physical fitness I have built confidence. This is why I decided to take the CrossFit Trainer course. I want to share these great things that I have found and help inspire others to do what they never thought possible.